This invention relates generally to systems and methods for a layered web-business intelligence server architecture for use in a reporting system, decision support system, business intelligence system and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) system to enable the efficient exchange of business intelligence information.
Decision support systems (DSS) have been developed to efficiently retrieve selected information from data warehouses, thereby providing business intelligence information to the organization. One type of decision support system is known as an on-line analytical processing system (xe2x80x9cOLAPxe2x80x9d). In general, OLAP systems analyze the data from a number of different perspectives and support complex analyses against large input data sets.
In conventional web-based OLAP access systems, the exchange of business intelligence information between World Wide Web client computer systems and business intelligence server computer systems requires substantial processing capabilities and resources on the individual client computer systems. Often, the interface between the client and the server systems require the client systems to download, install and run a plurality of web browser plugin utilities in order to view or effectively interact with the exchanged information. By requiring the client-side systems to perform a substantial portion of the information processing, server-side applications were able to effectively manipulate the large quantities of data typically in business intelligence or OLAP environments. However, the ever changing landscape of browser and plugin software (e.g., java) makes it difficult for client-side systems to remain current with every element of technology necessary to interact with the server-side applications providing the business intelligent information. Further, for individuals who routinely use more than one client-side machine to access information, ensuring that each machine includes all required elements is difficult and sometimes impossible
Accordingly, existing business intelligence systems fail to provide a method and system for exchanging business intelligence information over a computer network wherein client-side processing and software requirements are reduced to a level compatible with virtually all client-side systems.
The present invention overcomes the problems noted above, and provides additional advantages, by providing for a system for enabling the exchange of business intelligence information over a computer network including at least one client computer system for requesting and receiving the business intelligence information. According to the present invention, users access business intelligence information over the Internet and World Wide Web to one of a plurality of web servers that balance the incoming and outgoing load. In a preferred embodiment, the user system comprises a standard browser and communicates with the web servers without downloading any plugins or other programs to execute reports. Web server/user communication preferably occurs through use of HTML/DHTML only without program downloading.
The web servers are then connected to one or more business intelligence server system that perform analysis using databases and data warehouses. According to a preferred embodiment, the web servers do not have a direct access to any of the databases or data warehouses on which business intelligence operations occur. Rather, the web servers pass report requests via XML to the business intelligence servers to perform the work with the databases. The business intelligence servers convert reports into XML and provide the XML-based version to the web server. The web server then transmits an HTML or DHTML report back to the client over the web.
By using such a layered architecture, a more efficient and secure system is provided. In particular, because the web server does not have direct access to the database, the system is less exposed to potential exposure to persons without authorization. Moreover, the layered architecture enables the provision of a xe2x80x9clightxe2x80x9d client system such that the client system only uses a browser. This is important for user devices with low processing power and memory (e.g., PDAs, WAP phones, etc.) and also reduced transmission time because the user device does not have to have a plugin downloaded with the report to be able to view the report. The system also provides better efficiency because the business intelligence server systems are higher powered and thus able to handle the processor-intensive report requests.
Other advantages of the present invention will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art from the detailed description that follows.